


An Accidental Proposal

by serenbach



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: F/M, Fake Marriage, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Happy Ending, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, POE Mini Bang, Presumed Dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-22 18:20:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13769868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenbach/pseuds/serenbach
Summary: After an unwanted proposal from a noble visitor to Caed Nua is interrupted by an outburst from Iselmyr declaring that the Watcher is her wife, she and Aloth decide to go along with the deception while he is a visitor in Caed Nua.They don't expect for word of their "marriage" to spread...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry for the Pillars of Eternity mini bang! Thank you to Lux for the awesome art, and to rannadylin for organising the whole thing! 
> 
> Here's a link to the gorgeous art by [Lux!](http://nonbinarymolly.tumblr.com/post/171282731093/my-contribution-to-the-poe-minibang-i-had-to) Please show it some love!
> 
> Featuring my moon godlike Watcher, Nelda.

It was a sign that Caed Nau was recovering that the keep was receiving noble visitors rather than criminals and drunks, Aloth reminded himself as Lord Brynwigar bowed before Nelda, who was sat right on the edge of her throne so that her feet weren’t dangling. There was something about him, his rich clothes and heavy rings and dissatisfied expression that he found troubling. Aloth watched him closely from his position standing close to the arm of the throne.

Iselmyr didn’t trust him either, and that was the most concerning of all.

It was with some relief that he noticed that Nelda seemed to share his opinion, if her narrow expression that only got more pinched and displeased with every word he spoke was any indication.

Was he _really_ asking advice on how to punish his serfs? Why come to Card Nau for that?

He saw Nelda’s hands clench on her lap for a moment, before she advised him to treat them kindly, unsurprisingly so to anyone to anyone who had met her before.

Brynwigar looked thoughtful at her advice, though not entirely pleased.

Nelda leaned forward, looking at him curiously. “You’ve come a long way to ask a single question, Lord Brynwigar. Was there something else you wanted from me?”

For the first time, Aloth noticed that Brynwigar looked a little flustered. “I hadn’t intended to ask this so quickly, but you are clearly a woman who appreciates an honest and straightforward approach. You are newly noble, unused to ruling and being in command, and I can support you with my own soldiers while your rule is being challenged. I think an alliance could be beneficial to us both.”

Next to him, Eder snorted disdainfully. Aloth agreed with the sentiment.

Nelda raised an eyebrow at him. “Just what sort of alliance did you have in mind?”

Brynwigar smiled at her, his eyes lingering. “A marriage alliance, of course.”

Nelda gaped at him. Her mouth hung open before she said, “I…” and trailed off, utterly lost for words.

At either side of the throne, their companions whispered frantically. Inside his head, Iselmyr seethed.

“As I said, I think it could be advantageous to us both…” Brynwigar continued, before much to his horror, Iselmyr decided to speak up.

“Stop sniffin’ around ma wife, ya clatty auld bastart,” she exclaimed loudly.

There was a shocked moment of silence. Aloth barely resisted the urge to clap his hand over his mouth, his heart thundering.

As Nelda jerked her head around to transfer her look of bewilderment to him, and Brynwigar slowly started turning purple with rage, he heard Eder chuckle, patting him on the shoulder.

“You can’t blame a man for reacting when someone proposes to his wife right in front of him, can you?” he said with an easy smile.

“Ah,” Nelda said, looking back at Brynwigar. She opened her mouth to speak again, but nothing came out.

“I hadn’t heard that you were married,” Brynwigar said, addressing Nelda, but directing a poisonous glare at Aloth.

“They’re newlyweds,” Sagani chipped in cheerfully. “You know what it’s like.”

“I had heard much of your adventures before I arrived,” Brynwigar continued, his expression calculating, his voice sceptical. “I must confess that I’m surprised you managed to fit a wedding ceremony into your busy schedule of fighting bandits and saving orphans.”

“There are… some advantages to travelling with a priest,” Nelda replied calmly, although Aloth could tell that she hadn’t quite regained her composure by the way her hands were gripping her knees.

On the other side of the throne, Durance sucked in a deep, outraged breath, only to let it out in a spluttering huff instead of speaking.

“Oh dear, your poor foot,” Kana said, and actually managed to sound genuinely contrite. Brynwigar’s eyes snapped to them, sharp and thoughtful.

Aloth relaxed as it became clear she wasn’t going to correct him in front of Brynwigar, but he couldn’t tell what she was thinking, and it was making him nervous. He had to force himself not to fidget and draw more attention to himself than he already had.

“I am sorry if you’re disappointed,” Nelda told him, her voice carefully diplomatic. “I hope that you’ll be happy in Caed Nua for the remainder of your visit, even though I’m sure we are not quite yet at the level of comfort you are accustomed to.”

He nodded at her, still unconvinced, but his gaze settled back on Aloth and his expression changed abruptly. He looked suddenly surprised and deeply annoyed.

A flash of anxiety went through Aloth until he realised what Brynwigar was looking at. At his belt he was wearing the sceptre Chancellor Warrin had given Nelda as a symbol of her position when he authorised her claim to Caed Nua. The Gyrd Haewanes Stenes hung at his side, the sapphire and silver it was formed from glimmering in the light pouring from the high windows behind him.

He’d protested when Nelda offered it to him, almost as soon as they’d left the Ducal Palace, but she’d only laughed. “What am I going to do with it?” she asked as she pushed it back into his hands with a smile, and Aloth had felt…

He shook himself out of that memory, conscious of Brynwigar’s lingering gaze. Nelda had given it to him out of friendship, or kindness, or just practicality, he didn’t know. But he guessed that to Brynwigar, the fact that he was wearing the trappings of nobility was a confirmation of his story. Some of the suspicion had faded from his face, though not all of it.

Nelda beckoned to one of her hirelings. “I’ll have someone show you to your room,” she informed Brynwigar, “and come and fetch you when it’s time for dinner.”       

 It was a dismissal. Brynwigar bowed to Nelda, albeit reluctantly. “You have been most gracious, my lady,” he declared and followed the servant out of the main keep, towards Brighthollow.

There was silence for what felt like a long time, all of them staring at the door to make sure Brynwigar didn’t double back on them. When she apparently deemed it safe enough, she twisted on her throne to stare at him.

“Your _wife?_ ” she exclaimed, her mouth twitching in what was either outrage or amusement.

“It wasn’t me!” Aloth protested. “It was Iselmyr! She didn’t like him,” he tried to explain.

“To be fair,” Sagani chimed in, “none of us liked him.”

“Did ya _want_ to marry that scunner?” Iselmyr demanded, despite Aloth’s best efforts to hold her back, and Nelda finally laughed.

“I really, _really_ didn’t,” she agreed. “Thank you.”

In his head, Iselmyr made a mollified sound and retreated a little.

“But what are you going to do?” Pellegina asked. She’d been quiet throughout the audience, but her too-perceptive gaze was lingering on them both now. “He is here for some time; he will press his suit again if he believes it will give him the advantage he seeks.”

Nelda shifted on the throne, tucking her legs underneath her more comfortably as she thought. “The Steward told me he has a reputation for cruelty and a bad temper. I really don’t need another nobleman deciding that I’m an enemy when I keep turning him down.”

“Well, there is an easy solution to that,” Sagani pointed out in a practical tone.

“I’m not marrying him!” Nelda exclaimed, looking horrified.

Sagani shook her head, looking exasperated. “Not that solution. I _meant_ that he does already think the two of you are married.”

Nelda bit her lip, sending him an uncertain glance. “Well, would you mind being my husband for a bit, then?” she asked him, and Aloth could only nod, his heartbeat still too fast.

 _What have you got us into?_ Aloth thought, though to himself or Iselmyr he wasn’t sure.


	2. Chapter 2

Aloth had been in more uncomfortable situations than this one, but that was not a reassuring thought.

Caed Nua was still mostly a building site that was not set up for formal dining; they usually ate in Brighthollow’s small cosy kitchen, but Nelda had some of her hirlings clear out a room in the main keep, drag in a table and prop up its wobbly leg, and set it with some mismatched plates and cutlery. 

The food wasn’t exactly what would be found on a noble’s table either; they were eating the same food as the soldiers in the barracks, and from the expression on his face, Brynwigar was not impressed.

Nelda was sat at one end of the rickety table, Aloth on one side of her and Brynwigar on the other, and Aloth was forced to watch Nelda valiantly attempt to make small talk with someone she would really rather not talk to, while Brynwigar was alternatively trying to charm her and ignore him.

He couldn’t help her either, since Brynwigar was deliberately blanking him and he was worried that if he opened his mouth for any reason other than eating, Iselmyr would take the chance to say all the things she was thinking out loud.

The meal seemed to take forever, and Aloth thought he wasn’t the only one who was relieved when it was over.

He slipped off to the library after sending Nelda a pleading glance and spent half an hour or so trying to collect himself before heading up the stairs to his room.

As he entered, Nelda appeared in the doorway.

“Did you find the cat?” she asked, and Aloth stared at her, bemused, until he saw movement behind her. Brynwigar was staring at him from the top of the stairs, suspicious again.

Of course. If they were married, they wouldn’t be sleeping in separate rooms. His stomach felt tight with anxiety just at the thought.  

At least it was almost certain that you were never too far from a cat in Caed Nua, and curled up on the pillow of his bed was the black cat with baleful eyes that embodied everything that was wrong about animancy.

(Not that he would say that to Nelda).  

“Ah, yes,” he answered, trying to ignore Brynwigar. “In here.”   

Nelda cooed at the cat before scooping it up in her arms. “Ready for bed?” she asked him, and he nodded wordlessly.

“Goodnight, Lord Brynwigar,” Nelda said as she passed him in the corridor.

He eyed the cat in distaste. “That thing needs putting down,” he told her.

“He’s perfect the way he is,” Nelda answered, her voice cold for the first time. Aloth tried not to smile as they passed him and entered her room.

Nelda gently placed the cat on the bed, fretting out loud about being unable to lock the door, as she started to get ready for bed.

It really shouldn’t be a big deal, Aloth reasoned to himself as he politely turned his back to her as she started fumbling with her dress. His ears felt hot.

They had shared a tent before too many times for Aloth to count. They’d even shared a bed in an inn once, when Nelda had been knocked out cold and he’d passed out due to blood loss, and the others had poured them into to the same bed so they’d be easier to keep an eye on.

But this felt different. They were in her own room, for one thing, with her own belongings about her, and she was wearing a nightgown, the way they only really could when they were safe in Caed Nau, and she was sat at her dressing table combing her hair.

It was domestic, and comfortable, and he had to keep telling himself it was a lie.

He tried not to let his eyes linger on her hair, or trace the glowing markings on her skin, more visible than usual when she spoke, drawing his attention back towards herself despite his best intentions.

“I managed to smuggle your pyjamas out of your room before Brynwigar came up the stairs,” Nelda said, looking at him from over her shoulder with a smile. “They’re under the pillow nearest you.”

He pulled them out, and changed, blushing and hurried and awkward, but Nelda continued with her hair and didn’t look back around until the rustling of cloth stopped.

“Do you have a preference of which side?” Nelda asked, heading towards the bed, and he shook his head, feeling unaccountably awkward.

“Alright,” she replied easily, sliding into the side of the bed nearest the window and wiggling around until she was lying on her stomach, arms under the pillow.

“Do you always sleep like that?” Aloth asked, amused despite his nerves. 

“My horns tear up the pillows otherwise,” she mumbled, eyes closed, but her lips tilting upward.

“I see,” Aloth said, making to draw back the other side of the blanket, when he was interrupted by a loud hissing sound.

He’d forgotten about that cat. It swiped at him, and he drew his hand back too slowly, thin lines of red seeping on the back of his hand.

“There’s no need for that,” Nelda said, in her talking-to-pets voice, and scooped the cat up and placed it on the other side of her. It glared malevolently at him for a few seconds, before curling back up, its back to him.

“Sorry,” Nelda said to him as he stood frozen by the bed. “He doesn’t usually have to share.”

As he climbed in tentatively beside her, she reached out a hand glowing gold with a paladin's power and healed the scratches on his hand gently.

“I feel like I should apologise in advance,” she said, talking to his hand rather than his face.

“The cat’s not going to sit on my face in the night, is it?” Aloth asked with some genuine alarm.

“I wouldn’t think so,” Nelda answered, flashing a quick smile at him, before re-examining his hand. “But I’m afraid you’re going to have a few bad night’s sleep while you’re in here. Nightmares, you know.”

“Well,” he replied, carefully pulling his hand out of hers, “I know something about that.”

“We’re quite a pair, aren’t we?” Nelda mumbled, putting her face back down into the pillows.

“Yes,” he said softly, watching her for a moment before turning away to blow out the candle. “We are.”         

He was still awake long after her breathing evened out.

The problem was, of course, was that what he was pretending to have with Nelda was what he _wanted_ to have with her and pretending was leaving him feeling both anxious and wishful.

He was sure Nelda wouldn’t lie so trustingly besides him if she knew about the secrets he was keeping from her.

There was a sigh inside his mind. “I did us _both_ a favour, ya ejit. We’d die of auld age before ya pulled yer britches up enough ta go and talk ta her.”

“How is this a favour?” he hissed aloud. Fortunately, Nelda didn’t wake, though he saw the eerie gleam of the cat’s eyes as they opened to give him a brief, disdainful glance.

He turned his back, conscious of her warmth next to him. He hoped Brynwigar would be leaving soon.


	3. Chapter 3

Brynwigar stayed in Caed Nua for two weeks, though for Aloth it seemed much longer.

It was two weeks of Nelda holding his hand as they walked through the grounds, or encouraging him to put his arm around her. Two weeks of enduring Brynwigar’s shrewd, suspicious gaze every time he saw them together.

Once, when he noticed him watching them, Aloth bent down and pressed a kiss to Nelda’s cheek and if he had been able to see his blush, then Brynwigar would have known for sure that their marriage was not all they were pretending it was.

(Nelda’s pleased, grateful smile made it worse.)

The nights were the hardest to deal with. Not because it was unpleasant sharing with her, but because it wasn’t. It was easy, and peaceful, and comfortable, and Aloth knew he shouldn’t treasure these moments between them as much as he did. The first time he woke Nelda from a nightmare and saw the way she utterly relaxed in his presence ruined him.

So he wasn’t sorry to bid farewell to Brynwigar, but once he was safely out of the gates, Nelda sighed.

“Are you alright?” he asked her. He was sure that the last fortnight must have been as draining for her as it had been for him.

“I’m fine,” she answered, her lips quirking up in a sad sort of grin. “In a way, it’s a shame he’s gone. I’d just got used to having a husband.”

When Aloth only managed to gape at her, she laughed a little, patted him on the arm, and wandered off back towards the keep. In his head, Iselmyr cursed at him.

It felt strange sleeping back in his old room that night.

\---   

Once Brynwigar left, that should have been the end of it. Their “marriage” should have just provided him with memories to treasure when he was inevitably on his own again.

But on their return to Defiance Bay, turning in a report to Kurren of Hadret House, he smiled at them before they left and said, “oh, and congratulations, by the way.”

“Congratulations for what?” Nelda asked, confused.

Kurren laughed. “Your marriage, of course!”

“Oh, yes.” She exchanged an uneasy glance with him before adding. “Thank you,” with a smile and hurrying out.

“How did he know?” she wondered aloud, glancing around her as if she could hope to spot one of Hadret House’s spies.

“Perhaps from Lord Brynwigar,” Pellegina suggested. “Nobles love to gossip.”

“So do soldiers,” Eder added. “You’ve got enough people coming in and out of Caed Nua for rumours to spread.”

“That’s the problem with making a name for yourself,” Sagani remarked. “Now you’re someone worth talking about.”

“I’m sure it’ll blow over,” Nelda said, though she didn’t sound convinced.

It got worse when they headed to the record room in the Ducal palace with Eder. While he poured over the records in search of any mention of his brother, the record keeper handed Nelda a stack of forms.

She peered at them uncertainly before handing them over to him. “What are these for?” she asked the record keeper, as Aloth leafed through them, his alarm growing.

“To register your marriage,” he replied, more concerned with the way Eder was creasing the pages. “For inheritance rights, and so on.”

“Uh,” Nelda replied, looking anxiously at the papers in Aloth’s hands.

The keeper laughed, misunderstanding the source of her alarm. “You don’t have to fill them in now, just drop them in when you’re done with them.”

They were distracted then by Eder’s distress and didn’t have a chance to discuss it until they were alone that night in the inn – alone because the innkeeper had put them in a room together without even consulting them.

“I’m sorry,” Nelda said, sitting on the bed and rubbing her temples. “I clearly didn’t think this plan through. I avoided one problem and caused a dozen more.”

“It’s my fault,” Aloth replied, sitting next to her, the forms the record keeper had given him crinkling from where they were tucked inside his grimoire as he did so. “And I agreed to help you.”

“And now you’re stuck with me,” she said mournfully.

“That’s hardly a bad thing,” he said, and Nelda smiled at him. His heart stuttered inside him.

“Well, I suppose a bit of paperwork isn’t our biggest problem at the moment,” she said, sounding a bit brighter.

“If need be, I can just fill it in slightly wrong so they send it back to us. I can keep doing that for _years_ ,” he assured her, pleased when she laughed.

It was comforting to sleep next to her again, nightmares and all.

The next day, with some reluctance, they headed to speak to Bellasege. He almost backed out when she added the copper bands to his head and wrists, but he saw the narrowed, focused way Nelda was staring at her and knew that she wouldn’t allow anything to happen to him.

As he sunk into his memories, he distantly heard Bellasege say to Nelda, “talk to him, he seems to respond to you.”   

Then Eder, laughing, saying “well, they are married.”

When he came back to himself, it was to Nelda holding his hand, her other caressing his cheek.

“It’s alright,” she murmured. “You’re safe.”

As she helped remove him from the wires her hands were shaking. He closed his eyes, head reeling.

This had not helped convince him of the necessity for animancy. His head was aching, and Iselmyr was unsettled within him.

“I don’t want her to publish notes about me,” he whispered to Nelda, who nodded in understand and tilted her head towards the desk as she went to speak to Bellasege to distract her attention and waited for him by the door once he’d tucked them away.

She reached out and touched the back of his hand with her fingers. “Are you alright?” she whispered, and he nodded, more glad than he could express that she had gone with him. She squeezed his hand tightly before she left to speak to one of the other animancers, but she kept glancing back over at him, checking he was alright. 

“Yer dunderhead,” Iselmyr said, though there was no harshness to it. “She _likes_ ye.”


	4. Chapter 4

It had been a long, long day.

Their journey through the ruins under Dyrford Village had been both exhausting and horrifying. There had been a lot of blood, and a lot of terror, and an exhausting hand-over-hand climb over an uncomfortably high drop.

Neither he or Nelda had blinked when Sagani had, with a smirk that had been somewhat forced, informed the Innkeeper of the Dracogen Inn that they were married and needed their own room.

He was too exhausted, and too accustomed to sharing, to feel awkward about it.

Nelda’s armour was spattered in blood and she was moving her shoulder awkwardly trying to reach the straps.

“Let me,” he said quietly, and after a few moments trying to figure out how it worked, managed to unbuckle it. “What happened?”

“It’s just bruised,” Nelda assured him as she eased out of her armour. “I’ll heal it in the morning.”

Aloth realised that he hadn’t moved his hand from her shoulder. His arm was practically around her, and she was leaning into his touch and not pulling away. He swallowed hard.  

“Do you think she’ll be alright?” Nelda asked him. “Aelys?”

“You’ve given her a new start,” Aloth assured her. “That’s exactly what she needs.”

Nelda sighed and sunk down onto the bed, and Aloth sat down alongside her. “I hope so.”

She turned her head to look up at him and she smiled, just a little. “Thank you,” she murmured, still sounding tired, but better than before. She didn’t move away from out under his arm, and Aloth noticed, to his amazement and Iselmyr’s elation, her eyes drop down to his lips.  

He almost didn’t hear the knock on the door as they inched closer, but Nelda did and pulled away with a sigh. Aloth stood as she went over to the door, plucking anxiously at his sleeves as he watched. 

It was one of the servers at the inn, letting them know that the bath water Nelda had ordered was ready for them. She thanked them and looked back at him, her mouth twitching.

“Um,” she began, and Aloth found himself smiling.

“Go on then, while it’s hot,” Aloth said, and when she left he sat down suddenly on the bed.

That was… maybe Iselmyr was _right._

(He ignored her cursing in his mind).

He hadn’t expected that at all.

\---

By the time they had explored Cliaban Rilag and returned to Defiance Bay, he could have almost believed that he’d imagined the whole thing, if it wasn’t for the fact that Nelda had kept _looking_ at him, enough that he couldn’t deny it, enough that (judging by the smirks he kept noticing from the others) that he wasn’t the only one who noticed.

They hadn’t had a chance to talk about it, and in all honesty, Aloth didn’t know what he would do.

He knew what he wanted. But he also knew what he was hiding from her.

As they left the Crucible Keep, after finally securing their invite to the animancy hearings in the ducal palace, Nelda paused to straighten out her clothes and run her hands through her hair. Commander Clyver, of all people, had congratulated them for their marriage and it had left Nelda flustered.

She bit her lip, running her hands through her hair. “Do I look presentable?” she asked him.

“Of course,” he replied, and she huffed out a short laugh as they started walking the short distance to the palace.

“I don’t know why I’m so nervous,” she said. “It’s not like any of them are going to ask me to speak.”

“I hope you get the chance,” Aloth replied. “You’ve seen first-hand the dangers of animancy.”  

“Even so,” Nelda replied slowly. “I’m still not sure if I think banning it outright is the answer. I think people are more likely to do terrible things when they believe no-one’s watching.”

Aloth said nothing, but her words did hit a little close to home.

“Anyway,” she said. “It’s time to go in. Wish me luck.”

Aloth paused, looking down at her worried frown; her hands curled into a tight, anxious balls and pressed tightly against her side. She had fought and overcome terrible dangers, but clearly the thought of potentially making a public statement was a frightening one for her, and Aloth was filled with a wave of affection for her.

Motivated by an impulse that he wished he could blame on Iselmyr, he bent down and kissed her.

It was meant to be a brief kiss to the cheek, like the one he’d given her in Caed Nua during their masquerade, but Nelda tilted her head upwards towards his at the same moment and their lips met. Nelda’s lips parted under his, he felt the warm press of her lip ring against him for a brief, perfect second.

But Eder’s low whistle and Kana’s laugh and the weight of their friends’ gleeful stares brought him back to himself, and he pulled away, his entire face hot. He was sure he was blushing.

Nelda’s eyes were wide and surprised and pleased. “Ah… that’ll do it,” she said, clearly fighting back a smile. “Suddenly I feel better about this hearing.”

She headed in, ignoring the whispering guards, and the rest of them followed. Aloth tried to ignore the commentary from his friends, but it was harder to ignore the commentary inside his own mind.

“Didnae think ye had it in yer,” Iselmyr crowed. Aloth did his best to push her down.

Beneath all the embarrassment, though, was the awareness that Nelda had _kissed him back._ It was a thought that filled him with as much alarm as elation.

There was _so much_ he hadn’t told her.

He didn’t have time to dwell on it for long though. Duc Aevar was murdered in front of their eyes, Nelda collapsed and couldn’t be roused for some time (and that had been a terrifying few minutes), Defiance City was on fire, Lady Webb was dead, and it was all the fault of the Leaden Key.

Aloth couldn’t conceal it any more. He reached out and touched Nelda’s arm as they escaped through the city, fending off mobs and avoiding riots. 

“I need to tell you something,” he told her, throat tight.

She turned back to face him, firelight dancing off her crescent-shaped horns. She looked surprised, but trusting, and Aloth felt his heart thudding in his chest.

“Right now? While we’re fleeing for our lives?” she asked, gesturing at the chaos around them, and Aloth nodded insistently. If he didn’t confess now, he never would.

So he told her everything he knew about the Leaden Key, and watched her face grow tired and grave in front of him, and he hated himself for it.

“Did… did you know who I was when you met me?” she asked, and Aloth shook his head fervently. “Did you tell them anything about me?” Her voice was so small as she asked that question.

“No, I didn’t,” he told her, and was relieved when she seemed to still believe him, but even as he asked to stay, he couldn’t help but fear that she would send him away.

But she didn’t.

“I don’t need a follower,” she told him with an attempt at a smile. “I need a friend.”

It was more gracious than he deserved, but he was still conscious of the distance between them as they headed back to Caed Nua.


	5. Chapter 5

Aloth hoped that they would have a chance to talk when the reached Caed Nua, but it was not the case. They went straight from the fortress to answer a summons in Stalwart in the White March, and while Nelda was still as friendly as she had always been to him, that closeness that had developed since their “marriage” had faded away.

They no longer shared inn rooms when they travelled, there were no more late-night talks, and Aloth missed them. He missed her, and he didn’t really know if he had any right to do so.

“She still likes ye, yer tumshie,” Iselmyr told him, and somehow it was worse when she was consoling him rather making his life difficult. “Just kiss ‘er again.”

“I really don’t think that’s the best of ideas,” he snapped back, not realising he’d said it out loud rather than in his mind.

“What was that?” the Devil of Caroc asked him.

Despite the fact that it was freezing, under siege and somehow on fire at the same time, they had also managed to recruit some new allies in Stalwart and the lands beyond.

Maneha and Zahua were pleasant enough (and while they were certainly… strange they were no stranger than the rest of their little group) but the Devil of Caroc was something else entirely, and she had just dropped with a nosy clatter of metal into the chair beside him.

“So,” she said to him, while Nelda was talking to someone on the other side of the Gref’s Rest who had been frantic to speak to a Kind Wayfarer. “You’re the one screwing the boss.”      

Aloth choked on his drink at the same time as Iselmyr cackled.

“I _beg_ your pardon,” he managed in response, but even to himself he sounded more alarmed than offended.

She jerked her golden head in Eder’s direction. “The blond one said that you’re married.”

“Not really,” he replied tightly. It had been a funny joke among their friends, but it just hurt him now.

“How can you _not really_ be married?” she asked, and while Aloth didn’t deign to answer, the rest of the party chimed in with the story readily enough. Nelda just kept talking, not looking back at them or acknowledging their conversation, though he was sure she could hear them.

“Bit strange that bastard wanted to marry her,” the Devil said when she’d finally heard most of the details. “The noble sorts are usually all about getting heirs and stuff.”

Aloth looked over at her in surprise – that had never occurred to him – but Pellegina sighed.

“Lord Brynwigar has two sons already, too old to be affected by the Legacy, but old enough to squabble over their inheritance,” she explained. “Marrying Nelda would solve that problem, and their inheritance would not be threatened by a potential half-sibling.” Her voice was subdued with anger, her feathers bristling.

Aloth felt a stab of anger towards Brynwigar again but was distracted by the way Nelda’s shoulders were hunched as she walked back to them. Aloth ignored the rest of the conversation and moved one seat over so that Nelda could sit next to him, if she wanted to.   

She did, and she smiled at him thankfully as she sat down. Aloth tentatively reached out his hand to touch hers.

She didn’t pull away. She turned her hand under his so that they were basically holding hands.

Aloth went back to his drink, his ears hot, ignoring the knowing looks their companions were giving him, and the Devil’s muttered “are you _sure_ they’re not married?”

\---

By the time they repaired the lift in the Battery, Aloth was exhausted. It had been long day on top of weeks of long days, and the horrendously nerve-wracking fight on the lift had drained him of everything he had.

That was forgotten when Nelda turned the wheel to activate the canons and promptly collapsed.

It took her a long time to come around, long enough that for the first time Aloth regretted travelling without Durance, but she did eventually wake, her head in his lap where he had moved her out of the cold wind and tried to make her comfortable.

The rest of their friends were peering around down at them, for once too worried for jokes.

Nelda gripped his hand, her glowing eyes focusing on his face. She looked… sad, for a moment, before she sat up slowly and scrubbed a hand through her hair. She was still leaning against him.

“What did you see?” he asked her quietly.

“I… don’t quite know,” she replied, hands rubbing her temples. “But nothing good.”   

When she finally summoned the energy to begin trudging back down the tower, he stayed close behind her, not even trying to hide the fact he was worried.

\---

The next time they stayed in the Gref’s Rest, Aloth was woken by a knock on his bedroom door.

It was Nelda. She looked exhausted, more so than usual.

“Sorry if I woke you,” she whispered. “I’m… I think… can I share with you tonight?”

He pushed down whatever it was Iselmyr wanted to respond and moved over without a word. She slid in next to him with a small grateful smile.

He hissed when her bare arm brushed his. “You’re freezing!” he exclaimed, noticing her shivering.

“I can’t get warm,” she admitted, and he carefully, cautiously, put his arm around her. She relaxed instantly, her eyes drooping, carefully tilting her head against his shoulder so her horns weren’t pressing against him.

Sometimes he forgot how small she actually was.

“I missed this,” she admitted quietly.

His heart started beating rapidly. “I did too,” he told her softly.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just needed some time.”

“I understand,” he replied. “I really do.”

She laced her fingers with his and was quiet long enough that he thought she had fallen asleep, long enough that he started a bit when she spoke again.

“I have a bad feeling,” she murmured. “I can’t get it out of my head.”

“Whatever happens, I’m with you,” he promised. “We all are.”

She sighed softly, but said nothing more.

Aloth hoped that she managed to get a little bit of sleep that was at least as peaceful as his.

\---

It wasn’t until they were in the cavern at Cayron’s Scar, Nelda with Abydon’s Hammer in her hands, the echoes of Ondra’s voice still ringing round them as they looked up at a large glimmering crystal that Aloth realised what was going to happen.

She was going to destroy the Eyeless, and it was going to kill her.

“This is what I saw,” she said quietly, shifting her grip on the Hammer. “I didn’t understand then, but I do now.”

She looked back at them all, her bright eyes glimmering with tears even as she tried to smile. “I’m sorry. Give my best to Thaos when you catch up with him.”

Aloth protested – they all did – but he knew it would do no good. She would never ask one of them to sacrifice themselves for her sake, but it was bitter, so bitter.

Aloth watched in silent horror as she placed her baby lagufaeth in Eder’s arms (it squirmed to get back to her) and then she threw her arms around him in a fierce, tight hug that was over too quickly.

“Go,” she whispered to him as she let go; his own arms had barely come up around her before it was over. “As fast as you can. Don’t look back.”

He felt sick, and for once it was his own voice raging in his mind. Pellegina had to pull him away as the deep rhythmic sound of the Hammer against the crystal filled the cavern.

When they finally escaped, soaked to the bone and shaking, Aloth sat down hard, heedless of the snow beneath him, and put his head in his hands.

Nelda was… he couldn’t even think the words, but it must be true. It had all gone silent.

There was so much he hadn’t told her, and now he never would. It felt like he was bleeding inside. Even Iselmyr was quiet, grieving in his mind.

He didn’t even hear the commotion his friends started making until Sagani literally turned his face towards the riverbank where Eder and Pellegina were helping a drenched and shaking Nelda clamber out of the river.

He staggered to his feet and rushed over to her, pulling into a hug as he cast Bulwark Against the Elements at the same moment.

“How?” he breathed, clutching her close.

“The dwarven souls –” she gasped. She’d stopped shivering but was still breathless. She gripped at his robe tightly, leaning her forehead against his chest. “The lagufaeth –”

“Tell me later?” he asked, and then bent down and kissed her, brief but fervent, her lips icy against his but her breath warm. “I love you,” he told her, his heart full and still aching from remembered loss. “Please don’t do that again.”

“I’ll do my best,” she coughed out. “And I love you too.”

“So, does this mean there’s gonna be an actual wedding?” Eder asked, but Aloth ignored him, tangling his hand in her wet hair.

“If Aloth says yes, sure,” Nelda mumbled croakily, still not letting him go, and Aloth laughed, amazed and shaky and grateful.

Even the truce with the Eyeless was the second most miraculous thing to happen that day.  


End file.
